Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,
Time has indeed passed very quickly. We are now in the final league of Ramadhan. May we get to continue our “ibadah” of fasting in good health and may we get to meet “Lailatul Qadar”, the Night of Power. Amin.
At this point of time, I am sure many of our Muslim fathers, brothers and sons are already busy with painting and fixing whatever needs to be fixed at home, in the spirit of welcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri just a few days away. Likewise, many of our Muslim mothers, sisters and daughters have begun with baking their delicious goodies, sewing and spring-cleaning; just to name a few. While keeping ourselves busy with these physical as well as our spiritual activities, let us take a moment to say a prayer for the people of Gaza.
The conflict in Gaza is not something new. In the past, we could only read the newspapers and watched news on television and usually, news like this would fade away within days as news about other issues emerged. However, in today’s age of social media, since the past ten over days, our newsfeeds have been constantly updated with pictures and videos of bleeding Palestinians, injured or dead children, crying fathers and mothers, and many more images and stories which tug our hearts. The most recent news accompanied by pictures of four young boys killed while playing soccer by the beach has caused tears to stream down my cheeks after days of controlling my emotion. Why? I am a mother. I have children who are around the ages of those boys. I feel so strongly for their mothers who have suddenly lost their sons. They are just children having innocent fun playing soccer among themselves and now, they are gone. Not by an accident, not by an illness but by the merciless rocket fired from an Israeli battleship off the Gaza coast. Truly heart-breaking. May Allah SWT grant these boys His Highest Paradise. Amin.
We all know that the invasion of Gaza will not cease. We all know that the Palestinians are suffering. According to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), hundreds of thousands of people there are now without running water, and within days, the entire Gaza population will face acute water crisis. (Source: www.aljazeera.com).
If facing water crisis is not bad enough, many Palestinians have also become homeless and become refugees overnight. Massive airstrikes have destroyed their homes. Are these the so-called militants/terrorists seeking refuge? No. They are civilians. The victims in this violence, this invasion by the Zionists towards Gaza are the civilians. We are far away here in Singapore. Can we offer our help? I am sure everyone of us will answer “Yes”. Of course, the easiest way to help is by praying for their well-being and safety. However, we can do a little bit more. We can make a financial donation. It does not have to be hundreds or thousands of dollars. Any amount can go a long way in this humanitarian effort.
Below are just some of the avenues available to make our donation:-
(1) Badan Agama Dan Pelajaran Radin Mas (BAPA) has launched the Gaza Humanitarian Aid Appeal since last week. You can visit www.bapa.org.sg/Gaza-Humanitarian-Appeal.html to make your donations. For amount of more than $100, BAPA can even go to your doorstep to collect. This is very convenient for the older generation who may not be tech-savvy to do internet-banking transfer, make donation by Visa/Mastercard or have chequebooks to issue out a cheque.
(2) Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) has launched two methods of donation drive.
(a) Online at https://www.muis.gov.sg/epayment/Donations.aspx
(b) Donation boxes placed in all 68 mosques in Singapore in collaboration with Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF) from 18 July 2014 to 24 July 2014.
In the spirit of doing goodness in this holy month of Ramadhan, let us pray together and contribute in any way we can to ease the burden of the Palestinians. Let us also take advantage of this final phase of Ramadhan to self-reflect and thank Allah SWT for our present well-being. May Allah SWT reward our charitable deeds in abundance. Amin.
“Whoever does something good in this month, Allah multiplies it by 70.” Al-Tirmidhi.
Norliza Bte Abdul Karim
Singapore
